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Wow! can't tell you how long i have spent on line looking at Red Velvet cakes. The big topic seems to be a substitute for red food coloring and that cream cheese icing is the modern not the old fashion icing. Cooked flour and milk with butter & sugar was the old way....I want to try this gravy icing!
Has anyone tried using cooked pureed beets instead of the food coloring?
Thanks!

I've heard of people baking with beet powder....but if someone doesn't like beets, I wonder if the earthy flavor would still come through?_________________Danielle
"Sometimes your knight in shining armor is just a re-tard in tin foil"

Yes I heard about the beet powder. Will have to look into that. I went ahead and made the red velvet cake w/o the food color. It looks like a nice brown. I used peringotti cocoa which is much redder (?) than Hershey's but it made no difference. We will see how it tasts later. I also made the "gravy" icing and that was a big flop. I was warned that it could curdle even if all ingredients were the same temp. I wonder why? It took a half lb of butter so we will be eating that too. So far it looks like I won't be making RVC for my sweetheart on valentines day!

I am thinking that if you would have kept beating the icing the "curdled" look would have went away. It should have the consistency of a heavy whipped cream when you are done mixing it. I think it is a much better icing for the cake than the modern cream cheese icing. I hope you try it again and have success._________________Patti
http://bakespace.com/?Pattit

Patti, thanks, I will check out that web site. I did whip the heck out of it on speed ten of my KA mixer for a long time....finally added a bit of heavy cream and it didn't seem to help much. The chocolate cake although mild in flavor was good. It was a cup and a half of oil though. Maybe if I add the pureed beets I can remove some of the oil.
Danielle, I just don't want to use food color. I try to keep everything more healthy and since it is not good for you and only used for the visual, why bother is my thought. If there is a healthy way to make it pretty red I will try it.
Yes, kind of tired of cream cheese icing used on everything so maybe I will try the cooked icing again. It really is light and tasty, just really ugly!!!

Patty, thank you again. What a great website. It has encouraged me to try this again. I think the problem started with the creaming of the sugar and butter. It kind of stayed grainy even being whipped a long time.??? The other mistake I made was to add the cooked milk all at one time. Wish I could scrape the icing off this ugly cake and do again!!! I am also going to try her recipe for RVC it has no oil at all. I used Martha's cup cake recipe and it is nice but like I said alot of oil.
Thanks all!!

Glad we could be of help, Shane (The Culinary Alchemist) is a member of BakeSpace but doesn't post nearly as often. I read his blog all the time and I am just in awe of the things he whips up. I have made that icing since I was in high school but never heard it called by that name. I thought the pictures etc. would be of some help to you._________________Patti
http://bakespace.com/?Pattit

I have bookmarked that site as there seems to be much more to learn and I am really into doing and learning more at this stage of life. So much of what I have been doing is because it is tried and true. I want to experiment but it is always good to have someone to bounce things off of. I am wary of web sites that just give recipes and reviews....so many of the reviews the people haven't even tried the recipe so that is almost no help. My dad was a depression baby so at my home we do not waste food. I need to know that I have a pretty good shot at the thing turning out and Shane (?) site looks very ecucational and informed. Yea!

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